So...
Sawstop patents about to end, and lawyer/owner sells out. Makes big bundle, consorts around with the big guys now.

Festool designs their own saw in the background.
Festool purchases Sawstop
Festool finishes up their own saw with SS techno.
Festool gets all new patents and keeps the SS market and prevents Bosch from entering the USA for another 20 years.

(01-11-2019, 08:02 PM)fall Wrote: Along with the sawstop brake cartridge

So, you made me wonder....

Went out to Amazon and found two apparently different SS cartridges. Link

- Amazon's page says both are by "SawStop"

- One is $103.50 plus $16.95 shipping. Looks like the cartridge I've bought in the past. Transparent blue plastic housing.

- The other is the "standard" $69.00 and no shipping for Amazon Prime. Different part number from the above unit. Amazon's page says this cartridge is "Compatible with SawStop saws that currently receive transparent BLUEcartridges". Can't tell what color the housing is.

What's the difference?

I'm tempted to buy one to see; like others, I think Festool will start jacking the price of cartridges as well. Won't be a bad thing to have two spares.

Fred, I don't know about the subscribe business. Like you, I'd question the sanity or safety practices of somebody who has a regular stream of cartridges coming into the shop.

I fired mine off once; was behind schedule on a commission shadow box and wasn't paying attention to how close the Incra miter fence extrusion was to the blade. I laid the blade over for a bevel cut; it contacted and fired the cartridge. That was about 5 years ago.

My dado cartridge fired once while the saw was not in use and the dado stack was stopped. SS replaced that one free of charge. I don't know what they found out about it after they got the fired cartridge back for forensics.

I keep a spare blade cartridge on hand all the time; dado cartridge, too.

The Amazon page on the individual $69 cartridge indicates a one-time buy for $69; there's a subscribe and save button below that.